University of Virginia Library

Dr. Hoadly's 'Poems Set to Music by Dr. Greene'
by
Keith Maslen

A broken and partly dismembered volume in the de Beer Collection of the University of Otago Library offers the means of expanding our understanding of the collaboration between John Hoadly, eighteenth-century poet and dramatist, and Maurice Greene, whose reputation as a musician and composer has, somewhat unfairly, been eclipsed by that of Handel. From close scrutiny of this unspectacular survival, this paper is able to identify unrecorded verse libretti and shorter poems by Hoadly. The latter are presented in full. It also offers rare details of performances and performers, of a kind not usually to be found in standard reference sources. Further, it points to new items from the press of Samuel Richardson.

The volume in question, minus covers and lacking an indeterminate quantity of leaves, fortunately retains its finely tooled leather spine and red label reading 'POEMS SET TO MUSIC BY DR. GREENE'. The fifty-eight leaves remaining, still loosely sewn in place, contain seven sets of words for musical performance, four printed and three in manuscript, plus four allied shorter poems.[1] The four separately printed works, occupying thirty-seven leaves, are Love's revenge (1737?), Jephtha (1737), The force of truth (1744), and Phoebe (1748). These are bound with twenty-one intercalated leaves on which have been written three other works of similar character, 'The Choice of Hercules . . . 1740', 'Love's Artifice', no date, and 'The Song of Moses . . . 1743', as well as four short poems in manuscript, relating to three of the printed works. The handwriting throughout the volume, on the intercalated leaves and here and there in the printed works, is Hoadly's own.[2] A summary of the contents of the whole volume as it stands is given in the notes.[3]

The four printed works and 'The Choice of Hercules' name Dr. Greene as composer of the music. Maurice Greene, born 1696, died 1755, held a number of the plum musical posts in London, and from 1735 was Master of the King's Music. Unfortunately, none of his music is included, and indeed none is known to exist for The force of truth or for the three libretti in manuscript.

Who wrote the words? The anonymous author of the printed works and 'The Choice of Hercules' is well known to have been Dr. John Hoadly. Three of the four shorter poems are signed J. Hoadly. Hoadly, born 1711, died 1776, was youngest son of Benjamin, the controversial bishop of Bangor, and brother to Benjamin, author of the hugely successful comedy The suspicious husband, whose title role was one of Garrick's favourite parts. In 1735 John took holy orders and, thanks to his father's considerable powers of patronage, at once became chaplain to the Prince of Wales. Thereafter, his life was that of fashionable clergyman, able through his passion for the theatre tastefully to administer sound moral doctrine mixed with a great deal of sweetness. John's collaboration with Maurice Greene during the 1730s and 1740s in private theatrical entertainments is vividly recorded in the Francis Hayman portrait of 1747, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[4] Here Greene is depicted sitting, with his hand on a copy of their latest joint production, Phoebe, while Hoadly stands modestly behind.

What do the several bibliographical facts imply? Surely that this was Hoadly's own book, that all the shorter poems and all seven libretti were his own compositions. It may further be inferred that all seven were set to music by Greene and that the title on the spine means what it says. Presumably Hoadly, perhaps after his fruitful collaboration had come to an end—possibly in 1749, when Greene retired because of worsening health—decided to gather

into one volume all his poems to music by Greene, both printed and unprinted. That Hoadly transcribed the manuscript pieces after the volume had been bound may be seen from his insertion of final punctuation below extra full lines of verse, when room ran out in the outer margin. A question arises from the obvious fact that the University of Otago volume has been partly and clumsily dismembered, leaving occasional stubs. Did it once hold other sets of words by Hoadly for music by Greene?

To analyze in greater detail the works in this volume, it is perhaps easier to begin with the printed ones. Even these offer some points of new information: details of performances and performers (scarce for this period) written in by Hoadly, and discovery of the identity of the printer of two of the printed items. The present whereabouts of all four University of Otago copies has recently been recorded in the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, two with the cryptic rider that they contain manuscript notes by the author. (As of January 1994, ESTC records the existence of other copies of the four works in these editions as follows: Love's revenge ([1737])—two copies; Jephtha (1737)—three copies; The force of truth (1744)—four copies; Phoebe (1748)—seven copies.)

These four copies are briefly described below, in order of their position in the volume.

• 1. Love's revenge; a dramatic pastoral, in two interludes. Written in the Year, 1736 [sic]. Set to music by Dr. Greene. 1737. Winchester: Printed and Sold by W. Greenville [1737?]. The four characters are Cupid, a satyr, Myrtillo, and Florimel, plus choruses of shepherds and shepherdesses. Hoadly has inserted the cast lists for two performances. One was sung 'at Dr. Greene's House, by Miss Ayliffe. Dr. Greene. Mrs. Hastings. Miss Gilbert afterwards Mrs. Bowes'. Note that on this occasion the composer himself sang the part of satyr. The other performance was 'at The Academy in ye. Apollo. [with] Mr. Lloyd. Mr. [William] Savage. Mr. Mence ['Abbott' scored through]. Mr. Bailley'.[5] The shepherds and shepherdesses were represented by 'Gentlemen of ye. King's Chapel, and St. Paul's Choir'. Greene had been organist at St. Paul's since 1718, and at the Chapel Royal since 1727. Roger Fiske has already noted the 'extraordinary' use of an all-male cast on some occasion or other, reporting a copy in the Royal College of Music, but he could only suppose that 'for some strange reason either the Society of Apollo or the Three Choirs Festival sometimes favoured concert performances with all-male soloists' (p. 178). Hoadly's annotations in the Otago copy indicate that the men sang in the Apollo Room of the Devil Tavern, Temple Bar. This was the meeting-place of the Apollo Society, founded in 1731 by Maurice Greene and Michael Festing as a place where music other than Handel's and

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  the Italian opera could be performed—hence the remark attributed to Handel, 'De toctor Creen is gone to the tefel'.[6]
• 2. Jephtha, an oratorio. In two parts. Compos'd by Dr. Greene. London; Printed in the Year MDCCXXXVII. Again, Hoadly has noted a performance 'at ye. Academy in the Apollo' and filled in the cast list: Jephtha, by 'Mr. Abbott', Jephtha's daughter by 'Mrs. Lampe', First and Second Elder of Gilead, 'Mr. Whaley. Mr. Cheriton', Chorus, 'Gentlemen and Boys of ye. K's Chapel'. Mrs. Lampe is no doubt Isabella, née Young, newly married wife of John Frederick Lampe (Fiske, p. 631).
• 3. The force of truth. An oratorio. Set to Music by Dr. Greene. ['1743' inserted in MS.] London; Printed in the year MDCCXLIV. Hoadly has inserted only the names of the singers: Darius 'Savage', First Persian Youth 'Lloyd', choruses sung by 'Gentn. & Boys of ye. Kings Chapel, & St. Pauls Choir'. The printer's ornaments are those used by Samuel Richardson. They include ornaments number 3 (insert only), used on the title page, and numbers 8, 57, and 103, as reproduced in William Sale, Samuel Richardson: master printer (1950); also two other ornaments among the four hundred or so Richardson ornaments identified by Maslen (to be reproduced in his forthcoming revision of Sale). Jephtha is not listed by Sale.
• 4. Phoebe. A pastoral opera. Set to music by Dr. Greene. London: Printed in the Year M.DCC.XLVIII. Hoadly has added 'Perform'd at ye. Academy' and identified the singers: Amyntas 'Mr. Savage' (with 'Mence' scored through), Linco 'Mr Wasse' ('Savage' scored through), Sylvio 'Mr. Beard' ('Bailley' scored through), Phoebe and Celia 'Mr. Jones', choruses 'Gentlemen & Boys of the K's. Chapel, & St. Paul's Choir'. Mr. Beard must be John Beard, the celebrated tenor.

Again, the printer's ornaments are those used by Samuel Richardson. They include numbers 16 and 51—the latter on the title-page—as reproduced by William Sale, as well as five other Richardson ornaments as identified by Maslen. Phoebe is not listed by Sale.

Hoadly's annotations in the printed copies are the least of his manuscript contributions to the volume. Next to be considered are the four short poems written on added leaves and prefixed to three of the printed pieces. All are apparently unpublished, except for ten lines of a version of the second poem, referred to below. The first is a 'Dedication of ye. Pastoral of Love's Revenge to Diana, Duchess of Bedford' in twenty-four lines of octosyllabics.[7] The

second, containing twenty-two lines of octosyllabics, is addressed 'To James Harris Esqre. of Salisbury, with the following Pastoral, and the Music in Score. 1743'.[8] The 'following Pastoral' is the copy of the Winchester edition of Love's revenge, presumably printed in 1737. Clive T. Probyn, in The sociable humanist: the life and works of James Harris 1709-1780 (1991), quotes ten lines of a variant copy of this poem from British Library Add. MSS 37683, with line 2 reading 'No sweeter Harris than of your Mind' instead of 'No sweeter notes, than of the Mind'.[9] Probyn supposes that the 'Pastoral' was 'almost certainly Phoebe: A Pastoral set to music by Dr. Greene (1748)', and that 'the poem was also by Hoadly'. Certainly, in this Otago copy, Hoadly claims the lines as his, but it now appears that the pastoral was Love's revenge, perhaps in a copy of this very Winchester edition, and that the gift was made in '1743', which was presumably also the date of composition of these lines.

The third little poem, an Italian sonnet written on the verso of a leaf immediately preceding The force of truth, is addressed 'To Mrs. Bowes with ye. Force of Truth, an Oratorio. Sonnet in Imitation of Milton'. The first line is 'O Florimel, whose tunefull Skill once gave'—the full text is given in the notes.[10] 'Florimel' flatteringly recalls Mrs. Bowes' performance of this role in the production of Love's revenge held at Dr. Greene's house—see above.

The fourth poem, fifty lines of octosyllabic couplets occupying most of the two leaves immediately preceding Phoebe, is addressed 'To the most Honourable the Marchioness Grey, with my Pastoral Opera of Phoebe, set to Musick by Dr. Greene'.[11] Its text begins 'From polish'd Circles of ye. Fair, / From gilded Domes, and tainted Air . . .'. The full text is given in the notes.[12]

There is much more. The dedicatory poems already described take up a mere eight pages. On the remaining thirty (discounting blanks) Hoadly has transcribed fair copies of three libretti: two masques and a Biblical verse paraphrase. The first of these, placed in chronological order immediately after Jephtha, is 'The Choice of Hercules, A Mask, set to Musick by Dr. Greene, 1740'. The second, placed after Phoebe—and therefore arguably later —is the undated, and apparently unreported, 'Love's Artifice, A Mask. Set to Musick by [space left blank]'. At the very end of the volume comes 'The Song of Moses paraphrased for Musick from Exod: Chr. 15, 1743', also seemingly unreported.

'The Choice of Hercules' between pleasure and virtue obviously required much deliberation. Hercules was sung by 'Mr. Abbot', Virtue by 'Mrs. Lampe',

Pleasure by 'Miss Young', and followers of these two were represented by 'Gentn. & Boys of ye. Kg's. Chapel'. The piece begins and ends this way: Following the verse, Hoadley has written, 'Taken from Prodicus in Xenophon, and from Silius Italicus'.

This is evidently the work in four scenes generally known as 'The Judgment of Hercules'. Roger Fiske, in discussing the 'popularity in the 1740s of this triangular theme', tentatively gives priority to this version by Greene, with its libretto 'probably' by John Hoadly.[13] According to Fiske, the title 'The Choice of Hercules' belongs to an undated, unpublished, and perhaps unperformed cantata by John Stanley, as well as to Handel's 'interlude' of 1751. However, here Hoadly himself, perhaps in the late 1740s, has also chosen to call his work by that name.

'Love's Artifice' is a pastoral drama in four scenes. The 'Persons represented' are Camacho the Rich, Basilius the Poor, Quiteria, and Friends of Camacho, and Friends of Basilius, forming the two choruses. The first scene is 'a Bower artfully decorated for the Nuptials of Quiteria and Camacho'— there can be no doubt how the plot will shape. 'The Subject is taken from Don Quixote, Book 2. of ye. 2 Part, Chap. 2, 3, and 4th'. Friends of Camacho begin:

The text concludes with a 'Grand Chorus' of Basilius's Friends.

Hoadly's failure to assign a date or to state who set the words to music is unsettling. Does this perhaps mean that it was not in fact set to music, but only intended to be, and never performed? The absence of information in The London stage proves nothing, for works by Greene and Hoadly privately performed at the Apollo Society were unlikely to be publicly advertised.

'The Song of Moses . . . 1743' would seem to be a more fitting creation for the ecclesiastical Chancellor of Winchester. The 'Persons represented are Moses. Miriam. Chorus of Israelites. Chorus of Virgins'. The first chorus, of Moses and Israelites, begins:

The finale, by the Grand Chorus, ends:

What of the missing leaves, whose original existence is revealed by the length of the head-band and a few remaining fragments in the spine, showing the excision to have been rather brutal? Had Hoadly written on these perhaps other of his words for music by Dr. Greene? The note on Hoadly in John Nichols's Literary anecdotes (3.141-143) lists five dramas written by Hoadly: '1. "The Contrast," a comedy, acted at Lincoln's-inn Fields, 1731, but not printed. 2. "Love's Revenge," a pastoral, 1737. 3. "Phoebe," another pastoral, 1748. 4. "Jephtha," an oratorio, 1737. 5. And another, intituled, "The Force of Truth," 1764.'—a slip for 1744. 'The Contrast' seems not to have been printed, nor would it have contained words 'set to music'. (Nichols seems not to have known the 1734 edition of Love's revenge.) Nichols continues: 'He left several dramatic Works in MS. behind him; and among the rest, "The House-keeper, a Farce," . . . together with a tragedy on a religious subject'. Nichols further remarks that the 'tragedy was on the story of Lord Cromwell, and he once intended to give it to the stage'. A subjoined letter of Hoadly to William Bowyer the younger, dated August 1st 1765, explains that it was Garrick's retirement which finally put an end to any idea that Hoadly might with propriety 'break through the prudery of my profession, and (in my station in the Church) produce a play upon the Stage'. Another, presumably unpublished, letter from Hoadly to Bowyer (the recipient may now be clearly identified) dated 'Sepr. 6th. 1763' shows further that Hoadly had been hoping not only to have this 'historical Tragedy on the Fate of ye. great & good Lord Cromwell, the great Promoter of the Reformation in England', produced on the stage by Garrick, but to have it printed by Bowyer and to give him the copyright, thus 'acknowledging not merely by Words, the Sense I have of the Obligations due to Mr. Bowyer as mine and my Father's Friend'.[14] Clearly this too was no poem for setting to music.

One is left wondering what other 'dramatic Works in MS.', if any, Hoadly wrote that might once have been present in this volume. Nevertheless, his own collection, depleted as it seems to be, is a valuable reminder of a poet prominent in his day, and of his composer friend.

Notes